Aimless

by The Silent Insomniac

Joshua Renalia finds himself lost in the Dragon Realms with nothing but his sleeping clothes, his knowledge of Spyro lore, and a power beyond his understanding. Cut off from all he knows, the human discovers Spyro's world is alien, unforgiving, brutally shattering his naive expectations. How long can he live here before going insane? Is there a way back home? Why is he even here?

28. (City Life) (37D) Teacher's Pet 1B

Author's Notes:

Direct continuation from 1A. Also would like to thank LoNeWoLf for noticing one glaring continuity error I overlooked while writing this. It has been fixed the day after I posted the chapter. At least... most of the instances of the error that I could find.

Timestamp key: "D" for days, "W" for weeks, "M" for months, "Y" for years, "EM" for early morning, "LM" for late morning, "EA" for early afternoon, "LA" for late afternoon, "EE" for early evening, "LN" for late night, and "AD" for all day. Note that the Realms follows the sexagesimal system for keeping time, just like Earth. (In other words, 60 seconds per minute and 60 minutes per hour.)

Snip category key: There are four categories of snips. "Settling In", "City Life", "Beyond the Wall", and "The Journey Home". All four represent parallel storylines that take place within Aimless, and other than "Settling In", each snip category has at least two subtypes. Those subtypes aren't listed due to potential spoilers.

The character Vara was imported from the game Angels with Scaly Wings, with major adjustments to her biography. Do not expect her to be the same person.

Enjoy!

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City Life – Employment

Chapter 28: Teacher's Pet 1-B

"I guess sometimes help comes from unexpected places."

- Sora, Kingdom Hearts II

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[37D/LM]

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Vara whipped her head around Alona Hall.

The others were beginning their exercises. She watched a Fire dragon turn their claws orange. She saw faint sparks dancing on an Electric dragon's scales, sending out the occasional pop as they appeared. "You can do this, Vara," she cheered herself on. "You can do this."

Ice dragons were valued highly for their versatility. The lesser species found comfort in their ability to modulate the searing temperatures of the sun, and like Earth dragons, they shaped battlefields, converting their mana into thick, impenetrable walls of ice or deathtraps even dragons would have difficulty surmounting. Obviously Vara couldn't do any of those; as matter of fact, she couldn't manifest her Element much beyond a trail of steam.

Everyone has to start from somewhere. The first thing she needed to do was create ice claws. To do that, she had to bring down the temperature around her body to the point ice wouldn't melt easily, even when exposed to a flame breath, and then condense mana to conjure icicles around her claws. That sounded simple enough to her.

.

.

.

Except it wasn't that simple.

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.

.

Vara had raised one of her forepaws. She had not so much focused as she stared intensely at it. Clearly she lost track of time while bringing down the ambient temperature with her mana. She frowned. It was just cold enough that she could probably conjure ice on top of her claws, but not enough to stabilize the crystalline structure to withstand violent combat in close quarters. This wouldn't do! In a fight, she'd end up recreating the ice again and again, expending her mana reserves faster than her opponent. Ancestors, what was she doing wrong? Her magical core was radiating mana just fine, and it was going to the right place. So why wasn't it getting colder faster?

This wasn't good. She still had to do the snowball exercise. That was another flight altogether, more difficult than Ice Claws. Vara would have to rely on her Ice Breath. She would expel snow, gather some of it while keeping it at the right degree of coldness, and pack it into one ball of powder without letting it melt or become ice. She snarled from the frustration. Instantly the air around her claws felt a little bit warmer. "Oh no!"

She couldn't regain control of it, and the temperature returned to normal. That's it; she was done. She needed to start over.

Unfortunately, Vara no longer had time to start over. "Hello, young dragoness," she heard Spyro say behind her.

"Eep!" She squeaked, turning around. "A-a-already? Master Spyro, I, I-I think you should find someone else to—

He declined, "No. In case you haven't noticed, I'm done with a third of the group."

"You are?" Her gaze swept Alona Hall. Everybody was still immersed in their exercises, but there were already some who were sulking while they practiced. Others stood with a stupefied expression on their snouts, and a few already left, having given up completely on their apprenticeships. "By the Ancestors, I must've gotten distracted…"

"Maybe. What's your name?"

"Vara."

"Vara?" Spyro studied her. "Why does that name—ah! Cyril mentioned you once."

"He, he did?"

"Yes. I remember being told about an Ice dragon with purple scales." The Savior laughed, "It didn't make sense to me before, but now I get it."

The Ice Guardian mentioned her? Why? Did… did he know about her family line? Even if he was nobility himself, even if he was probably one of the dragons who gave her family a home in Blowout, he wouldn't know about their lineage. Nobody in Warfang knew about their connection to the Sunburst Dragon! She—

"People must mistake you for a Purple Dragon then."

Ah.

"All the time," she said.

Spyro frowned and shook his head. "Poor kid. You must have a lot of weight on your wings."

"You don't know the half of it," she muttered.

"Anyway, I should be moving on soon. Are you ready, Vara?"

"…not really..."

The Savior reassured her, "It'll be all right."

"I haven't gotten to practice the snowball exercise yet…"

"I'll do another assessment before the end if you don't get any of it now. As long as you don't give up and leave, you'll have another chance."

"O-okay…"

"First, I want to see Ice Claws." Spyro demonstrated for her. Long, clear, and bluish talons of ice instantly formed on his tail and claws. Steam rose as the heat of Alona Hall mixed with the freezing temperatures close to his body. "Just like these." He made a few swipes in the air, the trails of steam mesmerizing Vara. He thrust at the floor and showed how, despite striking solid, enchanted rock, the claws did not shatter. Spyro then dispelled the whole thing, effortlessly. He was truly a master of the known Elements. "Your turn."

Vara gulped. The Savior gave her very little time to observe his actions in detail, and now the fact he was literally watching her every move made her feel nervous. She attempted to form Ice Claws again, focusing once more on her raised paw. Better on one than all three, right? She felt her mana swirling from her core and radiating outward. The temperature dipped down in a flash, growing colder and colder and colder, until it was juuuuust right above the point where the other apprentices could start forming icicles.

Once again she encountered that stupid bottleneck. Always! Vulcan, it always happened every single time she approached something barely acceptable! Vara's throat rumbled from mounting irritation. That the Purple Dragon was observing her with those critical eyes—with those judging eyes—was the only reason Vara wasn't pounding the floor completely vexed. She poured more mana into it, practically forcing the temperature around her entire arm to cool.

"It's cold enough," Spyro said, his tone low. Had Vara possessed the presence of mind to carefully go over what he said, she would have taken it as a negative. "Now form the ice. Relax, and let your instincts guide you."

She did her best to follow his instructions to the letter. The ice was practically a conjuration of air and the latent power of her mana, compressed together to the extent it produced a solid, nearly transparent structure at the base of her clawtips. The dragoness saw—she felt something there. Small, blue talons of ice had appeared, with steam rising off of them.

She frowned. It was too small. Far too small to be of any value to anyone. It wasn't even growing. The steam just increased when she directed a little more mana into it and—

Vara squeaked when she felt the temperature warm up slightly. She didn't mean to do that! "Ancestors!" She tried to fix the damage before it could affect her already pitiful display of Ice Claws, but it was too late. The warm air in Alona Hall had enveloped her paw long enough for her to see water drip onto the floor. "No, not yet!" Desperate, Vara pushed her mana around those crystal talons. "I can still do this." The icicle began growing in length. "I can still—!"

SNAP!

Vara watched her precious Ice Claws fall apart. Her jaw went slack. "Aaaaaaah!" The dragons that have been observing her began giggling to themselves and jeering at her ineptitude. She must've been the worst performer in the entire group. Vara ignored them all as she turned to the Savior. "I-I didn't mean—just let me do it one more time! It'll be better!"

The Purple Dragon had a flat expression on his muzzle. He must've been trying not to let his displeasure show, and he tried hard. But in spite of that effort, to Vara his dissatisfaction was as clear as the skies. He did not like what he saw. "Let me see your Ice Breath," he told her. "You don't have to do the snowball exercise after."

She winced. She hadn't tried that yet. The exercises required for just Ice Breath were similar to those for Ice Claws, just applied differently. At its core, the technique was a gust of snow. It was an artificial blizzard, conjured from the breath by lowering the temperature around the mouth to subzero, expelling mana through her breath, and forming particles of ice with it. They didn't have to be as compact as ice crystals—they could be; senior apprentices would have to master that—but for junior apprentices like her, it was alright as long as it came out as that white, powdery fluff.

"Master Spyro, may I just repeat Ice Claws? Please? I really haven't had much practice with—

"Don't worry. Again, you will have one last chance later. So just go ahead and show me your Ice Breath."

Vara fidgeted. Tiny, orchid scales fell from her body. Drawing imaginary circles on the floor, she hesitated, "Uhm, uhh, I-I, I don't know…"

"Go on, Vara," he said with an encouraging nod. "At least I'll know where you stand."

"O-okay…"

With incredible reluctance, the fallen noble inhaled deeply, reached into her mana core, formed a funnel of magic around her mouth, and expelled the air out of her lungs. She conjured cold snow with her breath—a success for her.

But that was the only good news she had for that exercise. The snow wasn't cold enough, wasn't compact enough to maintain its form outside the cold area around her snout. It melted almost instantly, to the point it looked like Vara had hawked up a puddle's worth of spit right in front of Warfang's legendary hero.

Thus, her first attempt at Ice Breath this morning went exactly as she expected it to: terrible.

Vara's head hung low. She felt blood rushing to her cheeks. It was so embarrassing. She refused to even glance at Spyro's direction. Vara was afraid he would actually look as—even more insulted than she believed he already was.

"You need to focus on your instincts more," he told her. "Just feel the ice flowing within you and let it out."

Vara suppressed her impulse to scream. Mother of Knowledge, that's what everybody has been telling her from the very beginning! Every dragon she's ever approached for help had been giving her the same advice over and over again, and none of it worked! What did "feeling the ice inside her" even mean? That didn't do anything to fix her problems in controlling that ice. The dragoness growled out of frustration. Egeria help me!

Spyro muttered to himself, "Poor girl. So much determination but none of the talent." The Purple Dragon must not have meant for her to hear his sympathetic comment, but Vara's ears caught every word.

Unsettled by his assessment and humiliated by her own incompetence, Vara spread her wings and took flight. She picked a spot on the elevated seats. At the very back, in the highest level. She dropped down on one of the seats, her landing as solid as the echo that rumbled off the cavern wall. Vara unconsciously turned around in circles before she laid down on the cold stone, head between paws.

If she chose to, she could have seen that she wasn't the only one to have left the arena below. Several dragons have taken seats of their own elsewhere, where they sulked or wallowed in their own misfortune away from prying eyes, while others had given up completely and left Alona Hall outright. Vara could have also joined the other failures and maliciously laugh at whoever made a fool of themselves before the Purple Dragon.

But what good would either of that do? Taking solace in the fact she wasn't alone in this or deriving some kind of pleasure from the failures of other people wouldn't do anything for her. By the Ancestors, she was done. She, was, done. That moment marked the end of the Sunburst Dragon's proud lineage. Never would she soar above her parents' disappointment. Never would she fly past her limits and live a life she could look back at with pride. Mother's abuse would only worsen from here, and with Father's enabling, she'd have to live with the violence, the chipped scales, and the open wounds for many, many years to come, every hope and dream she had for herself scattered to the winds.

Because that was reality, and no amount of praying to Gintomyr the Prosperous would magically change that. Alona could have made Vara a grayscale and it wouldn't have changed a single thing.

Vara felt numb.

She passed time watching the scene below. She couldn't see the other apprentices' snouts clearly from up here, although it wasn't hard to notice how Spyro's "legendary guidance" failed to help anyone. Her eyes trailed his figure moving very slowly across the arena. The dragons he spoke with struggled to perform whatever exercise he wanted done. Then he mouthed what was probably the same advice he gave her and moved on. From what the dragoness could see, those apprentices didn't improve a bit after receiving the Savior's words of wisdom. It was only a matter of time before they gave up, she thought.

Vara wondered. Were all of them as bad as it looked? Why wasn't Spyro giving comprehensible support? Why were his words as vague as everyone else's? Was this entire teaching thing a political maneuver arranged by the Guardians to appease the Warfang Council? Or was the Purple Dragon of her generation simply that terrible at teaching?

The dragoness growled. This was useless! She wanted to blame Spyro for her problems, but… Azeroth's rump, if the Hero of the Dragon Realms couldn't help her, who could? She covered her eyes with her paws. Tears slid down her muzzle. She tried to keep herself together, struggled to not weep where everyone could see her. Egeria, Mother was right. This was a waste of time. She should've just skipped this whole "remedial training" and helped her with the groceries. At least that way she wouldn't have another beating waiting for her at home.

.

.

.

A voice spoke to her from what seemed like nowhere, "You know, you were that close to nailing it."

"Nailing it"? What did that—

"Cheer up. Don't stop now. You have to keep going."

Was someone there? Who was that? Where did that voice come from? Vara opened her eyes. She turned to the right. It sounded like it came from the seat next to—

Nothing. Not even a scent.

Vara jerked upright. Her tail, wings, and ears all flared from surprise. "Who's there?" Twitching, her head swiveled left and right. "Hello…?"

This didn't make sense. She didn't see, hear, smell, or feel anyone else up here. All the other apprentices were down at the arena or in seats far away from her, without exception. Even the pair of mates Vara saw during her arrival were down there, practicing their shaping exercises on each other. So who could it be?

Who—

Someone suddenly appeared in the seat before her, appearing literally from the air. It was a bipedal species, one Vara didn't recognize at first glance. An obvious commoner, if she went by the quality of their tunics. They were eerily close—so close they could tackle her in two or three steps. How did they get there without her knowing? She should've seen this thing or heard their heartbeat, if not smelled them coming.

Their yellow-toothed grin disturbed Vara even more. It looked like this creature had bad intentions for her. But why? That's crazy! The Purple Dragon—the Savior was just a glide away. Who in their right mind would—

Only now did she notice their brown furless skin, their black mat of hair, and their primate features. "The furless ape!" She backpedaled until she felt the wall on her back. She trembled. Ancestors, it was really him. The mass murderer who invaded Warfang. The evil beast the Guardians imprisoned in the Temple! He had escaped, and judging by his grin and the way he just appeared from the nothingness, he was likely planning to resume carving death and destruction in the city, beginning with young apprentices like her!

He frowned. "Shit, I've been here for weeks and people are still calling me a f*cking monkey."

Vara didn't hear him. Fear exacerbated the pressure weighing down her wings. The grief she felt from seeing her ambitions of uplifting the Sunburst Dragon's bloodline fall apart had already pulled her mind into a downward spiral. She was already saddled with anxiety from the knowledge that the abuse she suffered at her parents' paws would worsen from this day forward. And now she had a literal life-or-death decision thrust at her snout! What in the Realms did she do to have the Lifebringer curse her so much?

Trembling, the orchid dragoness couldn't decide between screaming, surrendering, or attacking the monster before he slew her and absorbed her soul. Vara shut her eyes and curled in on herself. A maelstrom of hopelessness and the will to live paralyzed her movements. She didn't want to go, not like this! She had so much to do, so much to worry about. But with death awaiting her, what else could she do? Vara channeled Ice Claws to the best of her meager ability. Her heart ached as she faced the terrible beast in a fight she would never, ever have a chance of winning—

"Oh shit! No, no, no, shhhhh, shhhhhhhhh!"

Instead of flinging death rays in her direction, the furless ape crouched and hissed at her with a finger to his lips. Huh? "Be quiet, please! SHHHHHHH!" He knelt down and put one hand up in... in prayer? Oh, his left arm barely moved. "I'm not here to hurt anyone, okay? Don't cry or do something that'll get Spyro's attention."

Vara blinked. Confusion set in. She did not know how to react. All but one person around her repeated the ruthlessness of the furless ape, telling Ancestors knew how many versions of the Incident. All the stories described his thirst for blood in horrific detail, their narrators emphasizing the slow, agonizing death or the lifetime of magical servitude that would surely result from any snout-to-snout encounter with him. The sight of this creature of doom pleading for her silence conflicted so much with her internal image of him that it rendered Vara utterly and absolutely speechless. "Uhhh..."

"I'm, errr, I'm not supposed to be here—to be anywhere without my guards," he murmured his reply, "But if Spyro sees me, he's going to be so f*cking pissed! I mean, he'll, urghhhh, what's that term y'all use... ah! He'll be breathing hellfire!"

Vara couldn't think—couldn't understand what was happening. She had suffered enough today. Her mind wasn't functioning as well as it did. But, as the seconds passed, as the imminent death she expected did not happen, Vara realized that somehow, by some miracle, she held the advantage. She shook herself out of her stupor, regained what little composure she could, stared down the furless ape, and bared her fangs. "...Give me one good reason why I should stay quiet."

He flinched. "I can give you TWO!" he said. "Cynder and Volteer, they'll get in trouble too, and they'd never hear the end of it. Especially Cynder. I bet she and Spyro recently had another fight over me." He glanced over to the arena below. "He doesn't look it, but he's irritable today."

Vara went still. Lady Cynder and Master Volteer would be punished along with him? And the furless ape was the reason Spyro was here in Alona Hall to begin with? "...what."

"And honestly," the furless ape obliviously added, "things are going well for me right now. I've got a nice, comfy room with cushions, a job—that I kiiiiiinda hate?—and training at Proudtail Hall, like, twice a week. I really don't want to lose any of that."

Did she hear that right? The murderer responsible for the Incident wasn't rotting in a cell like everybody thought. He hadn't been tortured or starved these past few weeks. Instead, he'd been living comfortably in the Temple, well-fed and healthy. She even stopped to think about how fast he dropped the names of the Purple Dragon's mate and the Electric Guardian. That all but screamed the good relationship he had with them.

Vara coughed. "T-that—no, that can't be true. You're pulling my tail."

"Believe me, I'm telling the truth!" He fell on all fours—more like threes as she confirmed his left arm hardly functioned—and flattened his head on the floor, a gesture that gave Vara the impression he was ready to lick all four of her paws clean if she so much as demanded it. "I'm begging you, don't say anything."

The gesture also exposed his neck. If she felt like it, she could kill him. Just like that. How many dragons in the Temple desired this? How many people in Warfang would take the opportunity to kill the person responsible for the Incident? Vara wouldn't deny fantasizing that at one point, dreaming it would propel her family back into social relevance. In those fantasies, she imagined herself a veteran Dragon Knight slaying the furless ape after a thrilling fight to the death. But now...

Now she was just shocked dumb. "But if that's true, then... then it's like... like..."

Ancestors, like he's also a Temple apprentice.

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Vara felt her head hurt. She REALLY didn't want to butt heads with Warfang's elite.

"Fine," conceded the fallen noble with a disgruntled roll of the eyes. The furless ape released a breath of relief right as a good—or a dumb—idea lit up in her head. "But," she interrupted him, "only if you help me get better."

A dumbfounded expression appeared on his face. "You want me to help you? Why? Spyro's right there—

"Do I have to say it?" Vara smirked coyly. "I heard what you said to me. 'Close to nailing it'? I don't fully understand what that means, but if you're telling me to keep going, then you're seeing something the Purple Dragon didn't. So either you know what you're talking about or you're just being arrogant and stupid." She got on her feet and padded over to him. The furless ape stepped back. Oh, was he nervous? "To be honest, I'm past caring. Let's put you through a test flight and see what happens. I'll benefit whether you fail or not."

The furless ape made an ugly face at her. "...Jesus Christ, why do I keep meeting people like you? Y'all just looooove taking advantage of me..."

Vara opened her mouth and took a deep breath, giving all the indications of an imminent scream.

"F*CK! Okay-okay-okay! I was gonna help you anyway. God, you didn't have to do that!"

Vara laughed. "Well isn't that kind of you?"

"...I never should've said anything to you."

"Then why did you? You didn't have to reveal yourself to me."

"One, you almost landed right on top of me. Two, you were all sad and alone up here. I couldn't keep hiding and not help. It's… it doesn't feel right to me."

"Oh." The amusement she drew from this vanished. She did not expect that kind of answer from someone with his bloody reputation.

Vara turned serious. She sat on her haunches and straightened up, the lips on her muzzle stiff and emotionless. It was a ready posture; she was prepared to receive direct lessons, even from someone whose face betrayed his thoughts. He really had no idea how to go about this. Vara did not hope for anything at this point, but who could blame her for forcing him? The Purple Dragon's wisdom failed her. She's desperate. "Here's your chance then. How do we start?"

The furless ape scratched his chin. "Hmmmm, can you try—I mean repeat those, uh, exercises you were doing earlier? I just want to confirm some things."

"You mean my shaping exercises?" Wow, if he had seen that, he must've been in Alona Hall for a while. How did he stay hidden, and for so long? There was literally nowhere to hide. She made a mental note to ask him later.

"If it's that thing you do where you try to breathe out snow and play with it, then yes, shaping exercises. Just do whichever one you're familiar with."

Look at that, he bought himself some time. Smart. "All right," Vara said. The easiest one was Ice Claws. Tapping into her mana reserves, the dragoness once more repeated the exercise Spyro had her do. It took just as long (with just as much frustration) to lower the temperature down to the level borderline acceptable for apprentices, and just like before, a thin layer of ice coated her clawtips.

She sent the furless ape a furtive glance. An astonishing sight awaited her: the Ancestors-damned monkey wasn't even looking at her! When the Savior observed her exercises, she sensed his gaze piercing her, seeing through everything she thought and felt. That scrutinizing expression judged every decision, every reaction. An apprentice like her would only crumble under that pressure.

The furless ape? His emerald eyes were glazed over, as though in a stupor—a trance of his own making. His gaze held no sharpness within. Its glint was as dull, tarnished scales, weathered down by neglect and stupidity. He wasn't so much studying her as he was just... looking past her? No, he was staring dumbly in her direction!

Vara's lips twitched upward in annoyance. Seriously? After saying he wanted to help her? What kind of idiot—what kind of jerk would string along a desperate failure like that?

All concentration lost, what little ice she had created disintegrated into pieces as she bared her teeth and snarled. "Hey! What're you even doing? I thought you're going to help me! Stop getting lost in the ozone and do it!"

For added measure, Vara lifted a paw and shoved the poorly-dressed creature hard. He fell to the floor, body flopping breviloquently with a squeal loud enough for someone to hear.

The furless ape rose to his feet and snapped at her, almost yelling, "The F*CK, dude! Why'd you push me?"

The fact nobody at the arena seemed to have heard anything would have unnerved Vara had her mind been free from the problems of her own life. She suppressed whatever surprise she felt and rebutted the rude idiot for even daring to question her. "Because your stupid ape head was flying all over the sky!" Vara seethed. "Getting lost in the ozone after telling me all those things... is that funny to you? What kind of sick—

"I was NOT zoning out!"

"Yes you were!" Vara sat on her haunches and mimicked his facial expression. "You looked just like this." She slackened her shoulders, opened her mouth, stuck her tongue out, and let a string of drool drip to the floor. On top of that, she lifted her nose a bit and crossed her eyes while staring at the general direction of the furless ape. Vara held that position for a few seconds just to prove her point. "See? That's what you did! You—

"Goddammit, dragon girl, it's the way I do things!"

"Lying to people and misleading them? That makes you no different from an actual—

"SHUT UP! Just shut up and keep going!" He placed his working hand on her shoulder and shoved her in an attempt to make her stand on all fours. He failed hilariously. Realizing this, he took Vara's forepaw and not so much pulled at it as he wrenched it up to her snout. "Try again. Maybe another exercise this time."

Vara recoiled. "The only other one I know's the Snowball!"

"Okay, then do that!"

"No!"

"What do you mean, 'no'?"

Trembling, she shook her head. The snowball exercise required her to conjure snow with her mana, separated from her body, and compress the conjuration into a compact sphere without imploding. It was a prerequisite to iconic magic like the Polar Bomb, Blizzard Storm, and even one of the many variants of Ice Breath. Vara couldn't do this. She knew it was beyond her.

"Every time I do that, the snowball just collapses. I've never succeeded before."

"Well do it anyway."

"But, I, I-I—!" Then Vara relented. Once more she gave the furless ape the benefit of her doubt. After all, he might have a legitimate reason for acting the way he did and requesting for an exercise she's never succeeded at. "Alright. I'll do it. I'll do it, only because I'm—sort of, maybe, possibly—starting to trust you? Even if it's just a little."

She noticed he still hadn't let go of her foreleg. His grip on her orchid scales were a bit too tight; enough for her to feel uncomfortable. "Uhm, uhhh, please release my arm..."

He declined with a shake of the head. "Nope. I need to hold you like this."

Vara's jaw dropped. Her wings flared from astonishment. "What! Why?" She mentally ran through several possibilities in her head and chose one that made the most sense. "Are you doing that scary magic on me?"

He reluctantly spoke, "In a way, yes. But believe me, it's not dangerous at all."

Vara didn't hear anything past 'yes'. The moment he said that, the dragoness recalled all those stories of brainwashing and mental dominance, of how he imprinted himself on an Electric dragoness just a few years younger than her. "Eek! Let go!" She pulled away. To her shock, she hadn't shook him off. "Don't brainwash me! Ancestors, I don't want to become a mindless—

"Calm down!" Something suddenly slapped her snout. Being hit on the nose was a distinct and foreign sensation. And it hurt. It brought Vara back to her senses. She blinked, and stared at the hand holding her forepaw. Did he just let go, slap her with his good hand, and hold her again without her noticing? Wow, he was quick. "I'm trying to help you here. I promise—I swear to God—your Ancestors—whoever you believe in: I'm not doing anything to you! Can you trust me on this?"

Vara was reluctant. Was he being sincere to her? Or was he just taking advantage of her desperation? "I, I don't know..."

He grumbled, "Jesus-Mary-Joseph, this is what I get with all those f*cking stories." Pinching his nose, the furless ape scrunched his eyes out of frustration. He heaved a heavy sigh. "Okay," he said. "If it'll help, I'll just close my eyes and let you do your thing while I stand here looking like a fool holding onto you."

"How would I know you're doing something to me?"

"You dragons are sensitive to magic, right? I'm pretty damn sure anything I do will scream 'evil mind magic' and—

"And I'll just react to it."

"Yes. And the same goes for me."

Vara gave him a dirty look. "I'm borderline failing," she demurred. "What makes you think I can perform complicated magic?" With a disdainful snort, "Stupid ape, dragons can't even do non-elemental magic like those wizards from the Sorceress's Castle."

The primate huffed. "...You know what, I'll stop arguing with you," he said. "Just get on with it."

Vara didn't reply and did as he said. She might as well get it over with. It was hard to disregard the weight on her foreleg. The warmth it radiated and the softness of those five, smooth fingers made it difficult to focus, but after some effort (and a minor headache), she managed to concentrate on the space above her open paw, reached deep within her very self, and drew out her magic.

A distinct coldness surged from inside. It shot through her arm. Mist formed above her paw, where it hovered for a few seconds before compressing in on itself to form a ball. Vara kept this up, pouring out a stream of pure, ice-attribute mana into this ball.

Maintaining the connection, commanding the mana to form a mist, and compressing it in all directions became more strenuous as the seconds passed. The snowball had not yet been compressed to the point its density, temperature, hardness, and size were all on par with what people expected from the average apprentice. Vara had barely surpassed a third of the threshold when she felt her mana jam, right before her joint. Her mana began to leak out, to seek escape. The snowball quivered and threatened to break. She put a clamp on the connection, holding the mana stream down, keeping it steady as it snaked through the veins in her foreleg and rushed out of her paw as a barely visible mist.

It only bought her a few seconds of time at best. In time, the mana jammed in her arm increased rapidly and the mental strain soon proved too much to control. The snowball collapsed, exploding into powder and cold water. Her unspent mana rebounded, causing Vara to fall down with a pounding headache.

"Mother of Knowledge," she said, groggily. "I knew that was going to happen." From the floor, the dragoness turned her snout to look up at the furless ape, who had retracted his hand and now ogled her with his arms folded and supporting his chin. "Okay, Hairless, I've done what you asked. Now out with it. What do you think?"

The time it took for him to reply was so painfully long the creature spoke while she was already contemplating smacking his irritatingly expressive face with her tail. "You're not being efficient enough." He must have seen the perplexed expression on her muzzle, otherwise he wouldn't have proceeded to elucidate, "I don't know how to explain it in a way you'll understand. Uhm, it's like, errr, it's like..." He started making funny gestures with his hand. First it moved back and forth in a line, palm up. And after a while he was... forming a fist and snapping it open? Vara felt her brain dying. "It's like you've got this sphere of—I don't know, some kind of energy?—this sphere—this core of something over here, and you're making a bit of it go over here while it's turning into something really cold, but instead of this coldness going in a straight line, you're breaking it apart, bringing it together, twisting and turning multiple times over, all the way until it's shat out on the other side.

"At the same time, you're taking one extra strand out from that core, pulling it over here, and making a little space for the cold to be in. I, I-I understand the logic behind it. It makes sense. But you're having trouble maintaining the entire thing." The furless ape proceeded to analyze what happened next. In his ignorance, he described the way she lost control. He felt the ball of mist quake, growing warmer and warmer until it burst, he narrated. He specifically mentioned the convoluted pathways her mana took and even the way it was impeded within her. "In the end, you created many, uh, many bottlenecks that just clog up a lot of shit. You made so many of them that you lost your ability to concentrate and everything fell through. Get it now?"

Vara was horrified. She had expected him to blurt out something stupidly obvious. But to delineate how she failed in such detail? She was slackjawed. "That's impossible. Egeria's wings, that's impossible."

Indignantly, he scowled. "What do you mean 'that's impossible'? I just watched it happen. Don't lie to me—

"You don't get it; you're not supposed to know any of that!" She shook her head, dumbfounded. "You don't—you can't manifest Ice. You're not even a dragon!"

"No shit, Sherlock! Of course I'm not a dragon. But you can't deny it's one of the things only I can do."

"Nah, that can't be right," She said in disbelief. "No! You got to have something on you." She walked around him, her snout gliding over every inch of his body in search of an anomaly. She sniffed, trying to smell out whatever he used for this trick. A minute passed.

There was nothing different, nothing unusual about the furless ape. His skin smelled like a combination of saltwater and a flowery but tangy odor that could only have come from dragon saliva. (But, dragons only give baths to people they recognize as family…) His clothes were loose; he had no talismans or artifacts in his possession. Not even a weapon. "Nothing. There's, t-there's nothing."

He glared at her, impatient from all the waiting. "Are you done?"

"I know you're toying with me! That's the only explanation that makes sense in my head. The truth is you're flying blind and you got lucky describing my experience in exact detail!"

"HELL NO! Why the f*ck would I even lie to you now?"

"Alona's cloaca, why should I know? Maybe it's because you're just some sick ape who enjoys seeing others suffer."

The furless ape rolled his eyes. "That has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever—ARGH!" He grumbled. "Godf*ckingdammit! For the last time, I'm not pulling your tail—poking your wings—slapping your fin—whatever the f*ck you dragons say here. I am not!"

"Then explain! Explain HOW you know all that!"

"I've got nothing to explain to you! It's just how my Element works!"

"Your Element?" Skeptical of the claim, she scoffed. "Only dragons have Elements. Everyone knows that."

"Then why can I use the spirit gems, huh? Why can I even sense the way you channel your Ice? Did all those stories you hear about me say anything about that?"

He got her there, Vara admitted to herself. None of those tales being spread around Warfang mentioned anything beyond 'death magic' and brainwashing. "Uhmm, well, I, I…"

He palmed his face. "Okay, you want me to prove I'm not messing around?" The furless ape pointed to a Shadow dragon in the arena. Vara recognized him. He was one of three Shadow dragons in their entire generation of temple apprentices, and unfortunately the only failure among them. Right now, Spyro was watching him perform one of Cynder's signature techniques, if that haze of black shadow-attribute mana pooling around his feet indicated anything. "See that guy? He's taken stuff out from his sphere, turned it into, something—I can't possibly describe how it feels in words—and spread that shit all across the floor. But he hasn't even bothered synchronizing with it. If he doesn't fix that now, he'll probably just submerge halfway into the floor and get stuck. Now watch."

And watch she did. Vara joined all the apprentices in Alona Hall and observed the only Shadow dragon in the room. Spyro had fixed his gaze on him. It was cool and detached, as it always was. He and his current subject exchanged a few words that Vara couldn't hear from the seats. Then, gradually, little by little, the Shadow dragon began to sink in the ground.

He looked at the Savior, as though seeking approval. The Purple Dragon nodded.

The Shadow dragon had a determined glare etched on his muzzle—no different from Vara's own just minutes ago. His eyes narrowed, and he sank—he plummeted into the rock...

…and got himself stuck three-fifths of the way through.

While the rest of the class made a disappointed commotion, Vara whirled towards the furless ape. Her cobalt eyes regarded him in new light. It all played out just as he said it would.

She kept blinking, opening and closing her mouth, trying to draw the right words out. A mixture of fear, awe, and hope overwhelmed the fallen noble. Fear of what he was capable of, of what he could do to her. Awe at his ability to sense the world around him, perceiving things in ways even dragons like herself couldn't understand. And hope... hope that she could finally claw up from the pit of dragon dung that was currently her life and take off, soaring to her life's goal with clear skies and steady winds ahead.

Although Vara hadn't come close to figuring out the way the furless ape concealed himself in Alona Hall, and until now she still harbored doubts whether he helped her truly, sincerely, and without any ulterior motives, she was so desperate, she found herself naturally lowering her guard. Because when someone was trapped between a storm and a mountain, they would happily welcome any help they could get.

She was no different from them. "That was amazing."

"Oh, now you believe me."

The dragoness inspected him closely, sniffing him again, with her muzzle close to his clothing. Vara couldn't help trying to find some way to explain this away, to find out why he had this ability. She voiced the questions she was meaning to ask ever since she realized how lenient the Guardians had been with him, if not accommodating. "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be locked up in that room of yours? What if you're dangerous?"

He tracked her movements. Discomfort was evident in his posture. He probably didn't like being sniffed at. And as far as Vara was concerned, he could go fly in a volcano. This was a dragon thing, after all. "I was never imprisoned in the first place," he replied. "I'm under room arrest, but it's really for everyone's safety. Even my own. I mean, a lot of people want me dead, including your Savior down there."

Vara ogled him. "You're saying we're a threat to you?" She found that hard to believe, considering the facts.

"In a way," he said. "Volteer told me a few weeks ago my Element reacts unpredictably when I'm in danger. Other than that, I don't have much control over it."

"Soooooo most of the time, you're as defenseless as a hatchling."

The glower she received in response spoke for him.

"You're so pathetic it's funny," Vara brought a paw to her snout. Her tail perked up as she chuckled. "You do know that means an untalented apprentice like me can easily kill you despite all that turbulence you stirred up half a red cycle ago? Why aren't you with your guards then? Ancestors know how many dragons dream of the honor of ripping you limb from limb and tearing your heart out of your carcass with their teeth."

He maintained his silence and feigned detachment. Yet there was no hiding his true feelings from an expert at the exact same thing. Vara caught him flinching at every word she said; they were as talons plunging into his heart, mind, and soul. Yessss, it would be best if he didn't find out she harbored those same fantasies herself, back when she imagined him a mangy, murderous, and belligerent monster.

"I know it's stupid! Okay?" he whined. "But I was just sick of being in the same rooms day after day after day for, like, I don't know, like, a month! I just had to go somewhere else for a change. The Temple's enormous beyond my wildest dreams and it was so, so easy to sneak out..."

Vara spotted his eyes moving away from her gaze. The act made her ears droop. Alona, it looks like she went too far. She tried to console the poor thing and began with a laugh that came out more gauche than she intended. "Ehehehe, did I strike a nerve? I didn't mean to rub it in." Vara draped a wing around his shoulder. "But hey, you met me instead! I didn't hurt you. You're lucky I'm more reasonable than all those lizards down there."

He grunted, "Said the dragon curled up in fear when she saw me."

"That dragoness stopped after she watched you fall on your knees and beg," Vara rebutted. She sat on her haunches, feeling smug. "You're making me regret not demanding you worship my paws."

"'Worship'?" he echoed. "What an attitude. Do you think you're some kind of princess?"

Actually the last living heir to the Sunburst Dragon's bloodline but close enough, Vara would have said if she didn't catch the words in time and grounded them. She didn't know the furless ape and the same went for him. She didn't have to reveal anything personal. Not like someone had to say things about themselves just to be a friendly acquaintance. "No," she answered. "But it doesn't matter who I am. I'm just as stupid and hopeless as you are! We can be pathetic together." The words flew out of her mouth in jest, but in the back of her mind, she meant it. As amazing as Hairless's "Element" was, if he mirrored her with respect to his ability to channel it, then her chances of improving were gone. Her dreams, gone. Her immediate goals, gone. Gone, gone, gone...

It was heartbreaking, and she knew she'd really feel it after the two of them parted ways later.

"...I refuse," he said after a pause, then turned to Vara. She was stunned by the serious expression on his face. "I, I can't just leave you like this. I know how much this means to you."

She tilted her head. "But there's nothing else you can do." Channeling one's Element was an individual, introspective affair. Words and descriptions from other dragons wouldn't accurately describe the feelings, the sensations only experience could give. The furless ape had given his assessment. To her, that alone was a hundred wingspans greater than the "quick guidance" she got from Spyro.

"Yes, there is. If you do the snowball exercise again, would you mind if I supervise you directly?"

Direct supervision over her channeling? What was he thinking? That simply couldn't happen. Channeling couldn't be "supervised". It could only be felt—be experienced. Guidance could be given based on the experience, on the wisdom of teachers who have flown the same path and have felt the same things. Yet those same people could only perform guesswork at best, for nobody on Markazia—nobody on the Dragon Realms—could literally link with someone else and feel exactly what they were feeling. Hairless wouldn't be different.

...would he?

Vara lifted her hind leg and scratched her left ear several times, long used to the soft, flapping noise its fin made. She still thought it was pointless, but...

"Sure," she said, when she was done. "Why not? I've got nothing to lose anymore."

Vara assumed her position and raised her paw. The furless ape interrupted her before she could start focusing on her mana, "B-T-W, I need to hold you again."

"What's 'B-T-W'? I don't—wait." He wanted to hold her again? Vara cringed. She didn't want that. His hand was incredibly distracting; just having it rest on her arm makes her imagine it was instead kneading her wings in a smooth, circular rhythm. "No," began her decline, "I can't concentrate on my channeling while you're touching me. It could be why—

"I need to do it. I can't help you otherwise."

"But I—

"Please. You've got to trust me on this one."

Vara groaned. "All right, all right!" She inched closer to him, extended her arm out a little more to accommodate his short frame. "Egeria, this better work."

"If it doesn't, I'll do whatever it takes to compensate you for the trouble."

"Oh, don't worry, you will. I promise." Vara verbalized, watching the furless ape flinch before putting his hand on her arm. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah," he said. "Go do what you have to do."

Hairless had a stronger grip this time; it proved to be an even bigger distraction than earlier. Several fingers at a time curled or put pressure on her orchid scales every so often, breaking any concentration she had at the time.

Azeroth help her, this was frustrating! Several minutes have already passed and she was already on her sixth attempt at establishing the connection with the space above her paw when it failed again.

"This isn't working," she grumbled.

"Just concentrate a little harder. You nearly got it this time."

"How about you just let go of my arm?"

He scowled, "Dude, seriously! I told you, I need to do this, because I have absolutely no idea if it'll work otherwise."

Vara twitched. If it wasn't for that tiny speck of hope fluttering in her heart, she would've shoved him off of her by now. What was it he wanted to do? "Then stop disturbing me! Vulcan's flames, I keep losing focus because you, won't, stop, moving, those hands!"

"Okay, I'll hold still! Jesus Christ, you could've just told me..."

The dragoness let out an irritated growl before she shook her entire body, to try and get rid of her anxiety. She didn't bother with a response, opting to assume the ready position once more. "Here I go," she said. "Don't, move."

"I got this. You can count on—

A quick hiss silenced him. True to his word, Hairless became as a statue. Vara established the connection without much effort, but that was just the easy part. The rest of the snowball exercise and all it entailed was coming.

Vara calmed her heart and prepared for failure. She reached for her mana, pulled it out of the core of magic that rested in her center, and circulated it towards the space above her paw.

Like before, she felt it turning. Twisting. Following the contours of her body.

And like before, only a bit emerged from her paw and manifested as powder ice. She—

Vara's tail suddenly straightened. Instinct impelled her wings to flare. A sensation she couldn't explain came over her. It was a feeling of something foreign—something wrong—rummaging through her body. Describing the experience was nearly impossible. The first thing that popped in her mind was the memory of a Dragon Diver running its clawed, skeletal hands throughout her cloaca in slow, methodical, clinical movements.

But a mole's physical examination couldn't compare to this. Every single one of her nerves was put in a state of confusion; she couldn't tell what was her and what was not. Vara felt this, whatever it was, take control of her connection, of her mana, as though she willed it herself.

She—this Not-Vara—took the pouring stream of magic and shoved it straight up her arm. The cold sliced through all the curves and turns dictated by her body. Any resistance to the act, any obstacle in its path was crushed by sheer force. The very action inflicted enough pain to paralyze the dragoness. And yet...

The snowball floating above her paw suddenly grew in size. For a second it appeared the mist would leak out of the invisible cup of mana was being formed in, only for her—not her—whoever to reshape the cup into a sphere and compress the powder from all sides around it, rather than a single point.

In seconds, the snowball was complete. A small, compact sphere of powder ice. The size, smaller than the average apprentice's though appropriate given the mana that had been expended.

Vara stared at the furless ape, whose viridian eyes had focused completely on the snowball, on something she believed—she knew only he could see. A concentration so intense he practically shut out the rest of the world.

Her gaze darted back and forth between him and the snowball. Vara was so stupefied she had no idea what to do. Not even what to say. She didn't even realize her jaw was agape until the alien sensation intruding her very being withdrew, and took the stabilized snowball with it.

Vara snapped out of her stupor the second the snowball burst into a cloud of powder. Cognizant of his surroundings, the furless ape let out a ragged breath and spoke words the dragoness would never, ever forget, "Remember what happened with your mana. Remember that feeling."

Hairless distanced himself away from her, almost stumbling. Quivering, primate hands clutched his head. "Mm'kay... time for a quick break. Ugh, f*ck, my head!"

Vara ignored him. She disregarded all the questions forming in her head at rapid speeds. Her heart palpitated vigorously as she decided to recreate that moment. She had to. She just had to. Vara wanted Mother to stop abusing her; wanted Father to be proud of her; and wanted to bring the Sunburst Dragon's bloodline back into the air.

Vara raised her forepaw, established the connection, and pulled the mana out. She seized the coldness and, with the memory of the furless ape forcing it out her arm still fresh in her head, shoved it out the exact, same way. It was painful, but thankfully not as agonizing as the first time around. It was also just as effective. It took a little longer to accomplish on her own, but after a couple minutes of effort, Vara's snowball hovered in the air before her, supported solely by her own consciousness, and nobody else's. Buoyed by her performance with the snowball exercise, she attempted to produce the Ice Claws with the guidance given to her, and succeeded after a few tries.

Vara sniffled. Tears gathered in her mustard pools. A smile appeared on her muzzle. She did it. Finally, she could move past the two shaping exercises that have cast long, inescapable shadows on her ambitions in life. "I did it. I can't believe it; I, I, I did it..."

Something in Vara—something she'd later identify as overwhelming gratitude and happiness—moved her to hurl herself at the furless ape. "Wait, careful, don't jump—wah!"

She nuzzled his belly. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She continued to do so even after he fell on his back. She could care less. "Praise Azeroth, Ventura, Egeria, and all the other Ancestors! I never would've gotten it right if it weren't for you."

Vara blissfully licked his face, many times over. Even if she had known that the other dragons would only see her losing her scales over empty air (if they noticed at all), she wouldn't care. Invisible or not, Hairless was her savior.

"Okay, I get—bleh—okay, I get it! You're—ack—thankful—and I'm—ah!—glad I got to—blugh—help you but—ick!—please, for the love of—ughhh—stop!"

Vara backed off when she felt content. "I'm Vara," she introduced herself with a grin. "I'm... I'm really, really happy I got to meet you, Hairless!"

Hairless sat up. "My name is Joshua," he retorted, the grimace on his face not coming off even as he wiped his glistening, spit-soaked face on his sleeves. "And please don't lick me again. I know you're grateful and all, but I've already had a tongue bath this morning and I don't want another one." He bemoaned, "Eeewww, I can still smell it all over me..."

Vara brought a paw up her snout, a bit embarrassed. "Oops," she giggled. "I don't know what came over me."

"…Sounds like someone's done the exercises on her own."

"I did, yes! It was painful at first, but I suppose it's something you get used to." She nuzzled Joshua again, though gently this time. "I've got a long flight ahead of me if I want to catch up with the regulars, but... thank you so much, Joshua. You saved my apprenticeship."

Joshua rubbed her head. It felt good. Vara couldn't help leaning into his hand. "Happy to help," he said. "I'm glad that went well. I was afraid it wouldn't work."

"Hm?" That surprised her. The way he manipulated her mana, Vara believed he was an expert at it. "Was that the first time you did this?"

"Uhm, duh?" She was confused. What did 'duh' mean? Vara was about to ask for clarification when he spelled it out for her, "Isn't that obvious?"

"Not really, no."

Joshua let out a hollow laugh. "That's hilarious. My Element normally doesn't respond that easily."

He called it an Element again. Vara had a difficult time wrapping her head around this strange, esoteric power of his as one.

"I've never heard of an Element that can do what you just did," she said. "But what would I know? The world is vast and I'm just a talentless nobody. Better to be open-minded when I can help it."

Vara felt so much emotion from the heavy sigh Joshua made in response it brought back memories of all the flights she took, at a whim, to escape her problems at home. "Man, if only more people out here thought like you. I wouldn't have to be hiding like this."

That reminded her of a question she had already forgotten. "Is that why nobody knows you're here? You're using your Element?"

"That's right. I'm just masking my presence with it. Fooling you guys to think I'm not here." He gestured to the group below them. "They can't smell, hear, or see me. If anyone looks up here, they'll just see you talking to yourself."

"I've heard of Shadow dragons doing something like that."

"I wouldn't know that. Honestly I'm not that good with it. There's a limit to how many people I can mask my presence from and how long I can do it for, so it's a surprise that it didn't cancel out when I did that thing with your snowball. Looks like revealing myself to you made it easier to maintain." He rubbed his head. "Damn, my head still hurts like a bitch..."

"Is your control over your Element that bad?" Vara asked. "Joshua, I was joking when I said you were as defenseless as a hatchling, but, were you telling the truth? It's so bad you can't defend yourself in a fight?"

"I don't even know how I pulled off all that shit I did weeks ago! Volteer can't teach me anything about it, and it took me all this time just to figure out basic channeling."

"By 'basic channeling', you mean this?" Vara immersed herself into her core of energy and allowed it to saturate her body in a natural manner. She felt the cold course through her body and out her paws and wings. It manifested as a soft, bluish glow.

"Oh my god, yes! Exactly like that." He took her paw and examined her claws. He did the same to her wings. "I've gotten stumped so many times just getting to this point."

"But why?" She asked. "Don't you feel anything when you tap into your Element?"

"No! There's nothing. No heat, no cold, no uncontrollable twitching... I get zero feedback from my own body."

Then how was he able to manipulate her mana while it was still in her? That didn't make any sense.

Vara realized she had been thinking out loud when Joshua replied, "It's because I felt the same things you were feeling. The coldness rushing through your arm, the paths you let it take, the actions it made at your direction, the mental strain, your frustrations. I experienced all of that along with you. Soooo, I wanted to try manipulating it myself the way you did and... I guess I did."

Vara reflected on the experience. "It felt like I was the one making all those changes. It didn't matter how many times I told myself it wasn't me."

Joshua shuddered at the description. "That's terrifying. I literally almost lost myself when I did that, you know? It's a new experience for me. I don't know what it means."

"Is that the reason why a Portal Master visited you the other day?"

His eyes dilated. "How the f*cking hell do YOU know that? Nobody's supposed to know."

She glowered at him, unimpressed. "Rumors fly around very quickly in the airstreams around here. You should know this by now."

Joshua glared at her. "Christ's balls, the grapevine in this place runs deep..."

A grapevine? Why would he—Vara shook off her confusion. The furless ape sure had a funny way of talking. She ignored Joshua's glare and attempted to satiate her own curiosity. Because... why not? Right now, she had snout-to-snout access to Warfang's most turbulent topic of the month. She may as well make the most of it. "So which Portal Master was it? What's he like? Why did he visit you? Is Skylands interested in your Element too? How did the Guardians react to—?"

"Whoa, Vara! Hold your horses—I mean, fasten your wings! Too many questions."

He took a few, deep breaths while Vara watched—scratched her ears waiting for him to get his bearings. She knew there were a lot of things he would be better off not saying, even to someone destined for insignificance in the grand scheme of things, but she couldn't help being curious. Egeria forgive her for pursuing knowledge for its own sake.

"Why do you want to know any of this? This isn't your business."

She whined, "Come on! It's not like I can do anything about it, anyway!"

"That's exactly my point. It's useless to even—

Vara whimpered at him, widening her eyes. The oldest trick in the book. Ancestors only knew how many young dragons have done this trick and succeeded. "Please?" For added measure, she brought her snout to his face, to increase the pressure. "Please, Joshua? I'm just curious..."

He grumbled. "Okay, okay!" He pushed her muzzle away. "Jesus! Just don't get too close to me, ayt? I need my personal space."

"What's 'personal space'?"

"Never mind." Joshua scratched the hair on his head. "How do I begin...? Uhm, it happened a few days ago, while I was sitting in Proudtail Hall trying to figure out my Element. He came in and interrupted the whole thing. Caused a scene—err, almost became a diplomatic incident, now that I think about it."

"Who?" Vara asked. She wanted to know which one. There were three. Father mentioned the Portal Masters enough times for her to know they were prominent figures in the Skylands Empire. Each influential, powerful, and long-lived. Each a deterrent force that could contend with a Purple Dragon. People like them wouldn't leave the floating continent for no reason.

Joshua went on, as though lost in his recollections. "I don't know what exactly he wanted from me. I wasn't really doing anything special that time, but..." Joshua curled in on himself. He clutched his sides and shivered. "Shit, he knew. He knew the second he looked at me..."

"Knew what? What are you talking about?"

His heartbeats sped up. She could sense his rising fear. A trauma. "Can we change the subject please? I don't want to talk about this."

Vara wilted. She didn't mean for Joshua to relive something terrible for something as small as satiating her curiosity. "I'm sorry," she acceded. "Okay, then how about you show me your Element?"

A few seconds passed. The furless ape rolled his eyes. "It won't impress anyone, Vara. I just told you basic channeling's the only thing I can do with it. I can't do any of the other stuff I did back at the Gates."

"That's fine," she said, smiling. It was a relief to hear that; her chances of dying by accident had just dropped out of the sky. "I only want to see how it looks like. Who knows? Maybe I could actually help you."

Joshua snorted. "Riiiight."

"Really! I know I'm bad with the practical stuff, but I'm better with theory. Believe me!" Vara had a habit of studying the scrolls and notebooks at least a month or two ahead of the regular apprentices. Surely that counted for something?

He shrugged his shoulders. Vara still didn't understand this gesture; with what he said next she guessed it meant he didn't care too much about it. "Whatever. Not expecting too much from you, but, all right. It's not like it'll hurt anyone."

Joshua raised his arm. His eyes glazed over the way it did when he observed her shaping exercises. It confirmed her suspicions (that he was seeing—was sensing something she couldn't). Vara couldn't help cooing in awe when a dull, gray light slowly enveloped both his arms, even the disabled one. "Wow." She stepped closer to inspect it. The Unknown Element defied common knowledge. None of her senses prickled at her approach. Vara's skin did not register the heat of Fire, the coldness of Ice, the tingling of Electricity, or the light tickling of Wind. "Hmmm..." With a slight hesitation, she placed a paw on his arm. The skin was soft, yet firm. Not at all like the distinct toughness attributed to Earth or the hazy malleability of Shadow. "Nothing. I don't feel anything at all. Just like you said—oh, wait."

It took only a few seconds of contact for Vara to notice her pawpads went slightly numb. It lost a little bit of feeling. That feeling of touching—of stroking something soft and firm at the same time disappeared, replaced by pressure and an unnerving sensation she couldn't quite describe. "There's something, all right. It's really hard for me to explain."

The light around his arms dimmed, and a bit of feeling returned to her paw. It lasted only a second or two, just before Joshua gave her an answer. "Mmmyeah, thaaaat's because I'm focusing on you right now."

"...What does that mean?"

"I mean I'm thinking of you. Picturing you in my head."

Vara might have taken that the wrong way in any other context. Right now, to her that sounded like a strange way to channel an Element. "Why doesn't it hurt or do anything to me then?"

"I don't know. I'm still figuring that out. Don't worry, it's not like I'm thinking of hurting you or anything like that."

The dragoness gave him a quizzical look. He needed to think about that? That was just weird. With Ice she just had to think about the cold, concentrate on that feeling, and draw it out the way she needed to. Thoughts on how to actually use whatever she conjured were a totally separate matter. "That doesn't give me much to work with."

"See? Told you so."

"Either way, you better not think about hurting me," she said, slamming her tail on the floor, "or else!"

The Unknown Element dimmed greatly. It was a faint haze now. She barely saw it. "What do you take me for?" Joshua went on the defensive and anxiously waved his arms, "F*ck, Vara, we're friends now, aren't we? I wouldn't do anything to a friend."

Vara laughed, her tail wagging. "Seldoot's horns, Joshua, you're so easy!" She headbutted the furless ape in the way any dragon would another, not realizing it just dispelled the white glow he struggled so hard to maintain. Those weak, pathetic arms of his couldn't stop her head from reaching his tunic and nuzzling it a few times. "Of course we're friends. I was joking! Can't you tell?"

Joshua straightened his robes the second Vara pulled back. "Hell no! Not with that tail slam you did."

She waved him off. "You'll have to get used to it if you're going to be friends with dragons my age. That sort of thing happens all—

An epiphany struck Vara the instant those words flew out her muzzle. She was friends with the Furless Ape. Friends. Friends with the most detested person in the city, and Ancestors forgive her, she didn't find anything wrong with that. Hairless was kind, easily flustered, and not at all unlikable. He had a strange way of talking and was a bit of a snarker (annoying), but he was nowhere near anything the airstreams described him to be. As a matter of fact, he was exactly the way only one of her friends said he was really like.

A friend she wanted him to meet.

"—need to get going," Joshua was saying. "After everything I've done for you, the stress of my concealment's starting to weigh down on my head. I have to get the f*ck out before everyone—

She interrupted him, "Before you go, can you do me a favor?"

He was aghast. "Another one? Wasn't saving your apprenticeship enough?"

"How about someone else's?" Vara beamed. "A good friend of mine is coming in the next batch. She's actually a Fire dragon so the shaping exercises will be different, but like me she's on the brink of losing her apprenticeship. Can you come back and help her out? She's a monoscale though. I hope that won't be a problem."

Worry appeared on his face. "I don't really care about monoscales or that 'color-ism' shit y'all do, but, she won't attack me on sight, will she?"

The reply buoyed Vara, whose tail wagged faster. Thank Azeroth he didn't discriminate. If he could help her with the snowball exercise, then he could help that person for sure. "Oh, by Alona, no! That's the last thing she'll ever do. She's one of the nicest dragons you could ever meet here in Warfang. Promise!"

Vara's reassurances did not dispel Joshua's reluctance. So she stepped closer and clasped his hands. Her wings also flared open, going around his shoulders. These were gestures intended to bring an air of friendliness and compel agreement. Father employed them all the time with Mother, and she knew from countless observations they had a high chance of working when used together. "So what do you say? I know you can't wait to get out of here, but please, my friend needs help and you're actually much better with that than Master Spyro—

A heavy slam thundered next to them. "Get away from her!"

Vara was startled to see the Purple Dragon himself glowering down at them. Why was he there? How did he discover Joshua? Wasn't he supposed to be hidden in plain sight?

Joshua was no less astonished. Dumbfounded, he uttered, "You can see me?"

Spyro inserted himself between the two, his thick tail forcing Vara away. "I knew something felt off!" Without wasting any movement, the Savior pinned Joshua to the wall, solid rock encasing his paw like a gigantic glove. "I've been feeling strange undulations ever since I arrived here and they caught my attention when they spiked. And now I catch you assaulting one of the apprentices right after I started looking around? You are despicable."

"F*ck, Spyro! Would it bother you to observe a little? I wasn't assaulting her—

He shoved hard, cutting him off and giving the poor furless ape a mouthful of stone. "Suck an egg! Why aren't you in your room? Where are your guards?"

A horrified Vara watched Spyro violently question her new friend. She glanced down at the arena and saw all the other apprentices staring up at her—at them. Their expressions were mixed, ranging from terror and anxiety to relief and even anger. She turned back—suppressed a nervous squeal when she saw the adult dragon press his foot down on Joshua's head, drawing out a scream.

"Now talk! Talk or I'll crush you! Aren't you supposed to be working today? Why are you here? What are you plotting?"

Vara had frozen. She didn't know what to do. She wanted to help Joshua, but she couldn't come up with a good idea. A lot of whatever rushed into her mind now kept ending in either expulsion or imprisonment when she imagined the consequences. Her wings were pinned.

Joshua snapped. "I'm plotting nothing, f*cktard! I'm only here 'cause I'm f*cking sick of living in one f*cking room and working that shitty job y'all threw me at for the past four goddamn weeks!"

"You ungrateful piece of dung!" Spyro snarled back. "We gave you the privilege of keeping your life and this is how you repay us? Sneaking out of your place and using your Element on a failing apprentice?" He slapped Joshua's head with his paw. The claws drew blood. "I don't care what you say. You're planning something. I should kill you right now before you drop a stormcloud on us all."

Joshua coughed. "B-but, Volteer and, a-and Cyn—

"Don't you dare say her name!" The Savior had a sinister look on his muzzle. Vara trembled. She had never seen the hero of the Dragon Realms breathing hellfire like this. It was terrifying. "You realize nobody's going to stop me? After I kill you Cyn and I will be back to normal, Skylands will leave us alone, and Warfang will have less turbulence to manage. Apologizing's always easier than asking for permission anyway."

Vara fidgeted, her heart pounding. Tiny scales fell to the floor as guilt tugged at her. If she had been a bit more considerate of Joshua's circumstances, maybe this all wouldn't have happened. She could've just approached him later. It wouldn't be so difficult to find his whereabouts. But she couldn't, she couldn't just raise her paws at the Savior himself! Up close, he looked—he was even bigger than she thought. She was a nobody. A powerless nobody, at that. There was nothing she could do—

The two locked eyes. Vara could sense the pleading behind his viridian spheres. Even an idiot like her could tell he was begging for her help. He even made an attempt to speak. "Vara—

Spyro cut him off, clutching his commoner's robes and slamming him down on the seats. He pushed down with all his weight, intent on squishing the furless ape into paste. "Give me reasons why I should let you live, monkey. They better be good."

"My Element—

"Not good enough."

"AGGGGGH! F*CK! VARA, hel—!"

Joshua called for her a second time. Memories of her own suffering flashed in her mind, accentuating not Mother but rather all those who witnessed the abuse but did nothing to spare Vara the anguish. The dragoness felt compelled to do something. She had to. Someone as kind as the furless ape didn't deserve to die simply for helping her get better.

When people later asked her about this moment, not once would Vara deny she was absolutely terrified to go up against the dragon who fought the Dark Master and lived. This primal fear did not go away even after she made the conscious decision to rebel against her instincts and help Joshua, the only way she knew how: conjuring a snowball in her paw and hurling it at the Savior as fast as she could do it. "STOP!"

In the weeks—in the months that followed, Vara would never once realize the severity of the disaster she averted this morning. Instead, she would have recurring nightmares of Spyro's purple eyes impaling her with its flagrant blaze. "You're wrong!" she spoke, cutting off his livid response. "He was helping me!"

Vara leapt above Spyro and landed between him and Joshua, her tail slapping the purple paw off of the furless ape. The ice she conjured all around the tip had cracked, but it could probably last another one or two direct hits.

A nonplussed Spyro did not expect this. "Wha—

"H-He was showing me how to work through my shaping exercises," she stood her ground, praying to Vulcan her quivering legs didn't show. "I even have results. See?" Vara crouched in a fighting stance, her breath producing visible clouds. Icicles materialized on her claws and wingtips. "I couldn't do all this earlier."

Lifebringer have mercy, this was all a bluff. She posed no threat to the legendary hero at all. Her Ice Claws were still a couple notches below apprentice level, and if she was honest with herself, she didn't know if she could produce anything more than tiny, harmless snowclouds with her Ice Breath. Regardless of the reality, this presentation was wingspans above whatever she could do earlier.

And that was exactly what she wanted everyone else to see.

All the dragons watching them from the arena began murmuring to each other in disbelief. Had Vara strained her ears to hear them, she would have heard their diffident yet eventual acceptance of her sudden, unexplained improvement. Even if they didn't know her by name, they still remembered her past performance.

The Purple Dragon of Legend stammered, "A-Ancestors, that's, t-that's not possible—

"Sorry, Master Spyro," she quipped, almost forcing a smirk on her orchid muzzle, "but Joshua's a better teacher than you."

.

.

.

To see was to believe.

When the others realized one of their own got better at channeling—better enough to resume the flight path their ineptitude diverted them from—the frenzy that took over swallowed any fear, any revulsion they held for the furless ape and his infamy. It only took one person with the cloaca to clamor for their turn with Joshua to impel everyone else to do the same.

Faced with demands to not only let the furless ape live but also station him at the center of the arena where they can swarm him with request after request, Spyro had no choice but to back off with his threat. Vara thought the apprentices' collective insistence would have changed the Savior's mind about him. Azeroth the Infinite, she truly expected Joshua to start assisting the Purple Dragon from this point onward.

It was a shame that the Hero of the Dragon Realms apparently carried a pride that rivaled Mother's. "ENOUGH!" he roared. When silence reigned over the group for several long moments, he announced, "I'm returning the Furless Ape to detention immediately." He ignored the protests that followed. "Whatever happens to him next will be up to the Council.

"Consider yourselves dismissed!" he bitterly proclaimed. "I don't want to see any of you when I return for the next batch." Another thrum of power washed over Alona Hall. Any supporters Joshua may have had were cowed into submission. Spyro the Dragon glared at Vara, snarling at her. "Especially you."

He shoved past her and hauled Joshua up to his feet. A green light came to existence around his upper body and formed glowing solid rock the same way an Ice Dragon conjured shimmering crystals of ice. "W-where are you taking me?" clamored the furless ape.

Spyro wrapped his tail around his prisoner and tugged brusquely, not caring whether or not Joshua fell on the floor. "To Cynder and Volteer," he growled. "I'll tear their horns out for this!"

The apprentices watched the Savior lead the entreating and begging Joshua out of Alona Hall. "C'mon, dude! Give me some f*cking slack here. I know I violated the conditions y'all set up for me but look, I did good! Tell them what I did for Vara! Cynder and Volteer would definitely see…"

Joshua's voice trailed into the corridors as they passed the entrance hall on their way to the stairs leading back to the main passages of the Temple. Vara fretted over what would happen to him. Spyro was breathing hellfire, exactly as Joshua predicted. Ancestors, I hope he'll be alright.

With their teacher gone and livid over the events that had just happened, the other apprentices left. Most flew from the VTOL point outside the hall, while some opted to walk down the stairs. A few dragons pestered Vara for whatever Joshua taught her, only to be disappointed when she replied it was something that can only be experienced. "It's like you're doing the right things yourself when you're actually not the one in control," the dragoness was saying to the Shadow dragon from before, who had been nagging at her for a description until the last moment.

"By the Ancestors! I don't know what that means. All that sounds too abstract for me!"

"I don't know what else to say! Lifebringer forgive me. It's just impossible to describe."

"Aawwwwwww…"

Vara strode alone to the stairwell. Her mustard eyes caught several pairs of eyes glaring back at her. The second batch. It was a surprise these people actually bothered walking up the stairs instead of flying in through the VTOL point. She recognized them; quite a few were dragons who bullied the weak and feeble, especially monoscales. Vara herself would have been one of their victims if it hadn't been for her turquoise wings and fiery parents.

Looking ahead, she ogled the Shadow dragon rushing down the steps. He rammed past a Fire Dragoness climbing up the stairs. "Out of the way, monoscale!"

Vara rushed to the fallen reptile when she recognized the orange fins lining her back. "Clear skies," she greeted. She was about Vara's size. "Are you okay?"

It pained the other dragoness to reply. "Steady winds," she said, struggling to stand. Vara instinctively brought her head down to support her. "Sorry about that, Vara." She tilted her head at the bigger dragons walking into Alona Hall. "I've been pushed down the stairs lots of times on my way up."

Sitting on her haunches, the fallen noble puffed her cheeks. "Those bullies! I can't believe they'll do that to someone as nice as you. Vulcan's flames, you're even older than them!"

"I know, but that doesn't really matter when I'm weak and small for my age," she sighed. Vara couldn't sense any sign of misery or dissatisfaction in her voice. She had no idea how to respond to this calm resignation of reality. "Oh! That reminds me," she suddenly spoke, her ear flaps twitching. "I heard the human was here. Is that true?"

"'Human'? What's that?"

"That's who everyone's calling the 'furless ape'," she clarified. "'Human' is the name of his species."

Interesting. Vara had to ask her about that later. "It's true. He really was here. Didn't you see Master Spyro on the way up? He's got the furless ape all tied up in rock."

"No, no, I didn't!" She frowned and started scratching one of her ears. "Wow, I never expected he'd be here." Her lime eyes focused on Vara and she closed the gap between them. "Do you know why he was at Alona Hall? What happened? Did he hurt anyone? How'd he even get here? I thought they put him in Talonpoint Keep or something…"

Vara backpedaled. "Fasten your wings! You're breathing hailstones on me again."

The Fire Dragoness shrunk back. "Ah, sorry." She gave Vara an awkward smile. "I flew through that crevice again."

Watching this brought a few chuckles out of the Ice Dragoness. "Like you always do," she tittered.

Vara received a pout in reply.

"But it's true! You get excited like that all the time. Remember when you first brought me to those flower fields in Autumn Plains?"

She fidgeted in place, rubbing her paw on the stone steps. "I'm sorry about that, okay? I didn't realize you weren't really into—

"Chin up!" Vara said and literally nudged the dragoness's chin up with her own head. "You were hatched that way. There's nothing wrong with that."

She smiled. "Can you at least answer one question for me?"

"What?"

"Was Kilat with him? I hope they weren't separated…"

Vara tilted her head. "I don't know who that is, sorry. Joshua was alone."

Her lime eyes dilated from surprise. "That's his name?" She was agape. "Y-you actually met him?"

Vara bared her teeth and presented her with a smug grin. "Not only that! He saved my apprenticeship! Watch this." She conjured a snowball above one paw. Still took the same amount as it always did, but it was starting to feel easier. "I couldn't pull this off yesterday!"

"That's great! Your mother will definitely start treating you better from now on."

"Hopefully. You never know with crazy parents like her." Vara bowed her head and nuzzled the other dragoness's burgundy scales in apology. "And hey, about what you said before, you were right. I'm sorry I didn't believe you. Joshua's really not as bad as everyone says. He's even decent at the teaching thing."

"…Are you going to tell me what happened now?"

Vara stared at her friend and considered her options. She was still terrified of Spyro and what he could probably do to her apprenticeship if he caught her loitering in the stairwell. However, they weren't exactly in Alona Hall right now, so… maybe…

Maybe…

"Yeah, I've got a few minutes. Sure! Let me start from the beginning…"

---

Author's Notes:

Looks like Joshua's capable of making friends who aren't young kids or people in positions of influence after all. Good for him!

Oh, and since I have no idea when we'll see Vara again, spoiler alert for you guys: Vara did not get instantly better. Showing her how to properly stream mana out of her forelegs and to optimize the mana expended in the actual shaping process was just the guidance she needed to start closing the gap between her and the regular apprentices. Think of it like someone who's been trying to learn multiplication and division and can't get it right for weeks when they meet someone who shows them the shortcuts that not only demonstrates the concept but also enables them to efficiency solve problems. That results in a breakthrough, but then they now have to catch up with people who are already working on exponents, roots, and algebraic equations.

Vara has just entered a similar situation, and the challenges awaiting her include channeling Ice while on the move and/or under various kinds of pressure. She'd even have to do things like successfully channeling her Element while flying in high altitudes (where the winds are strong and gusty). Each and every one would be extremely difficult given her meager talent, but nonetheless, she would still be happy with what she's got.

Replies to reviews:

Djax80. You should check out TokoWH's checklist on DeviantArt. It's got a list of all the clichés and overused tropes you can use for your drinking game.

Though I believe I've proven you several times already. Thanks for following Aimless from the first chapter out, and I hope I'll keep proving you wrong in the future.

Aimless!Vara is actually pretty far apart from her source character, though there are similarities between them. In the game, Vara was a mute and uneducated orphan child who loved her parents and was loved in return. In this story, she actually has parents, is not mute, and has grand ambitions for herself, but to make her more of an underdog, I made her parents abusive and I made her terrible at wielding her Element in spite of her bloodline.

Well, you got to see Joshua in Teacher's Pet 1-B. I hope he proved entertaining.

Hitler's Moustache. The abuse is there to make it feel more real and imperfect. Gotta make it hit home, y'know?

Aaaaaand yes. That's what a Portal Master is in Skylanders canon. Not quite a joke in Aimless though.

Bizzleb. Thanks again for the review! I'd wager that you'd be right: Vara is likely to play a minor role in the grand scheme of things. Doesn't mean Joshua won't consider her a good or close friend of his in the future. Vara does have a fair chance of appearing outside the "Teacher's Pet" snips after all.

Most abusive parents in real life don't learn their lessons, sadly. Vara's parents will most probably follow suit.

People are reading my story to see what I've done with SpyCy, so it's only natural that they show up from time to time and hey! At least he got some screentime! And yes, offscreen events FTW! XD But… Spyro and Cynder aren't the only ones to have had interesting developments…

Hetxor. Thanks for the review, dude! Hope you liked this one. :D

Somas35. Thanks for the review, and thanks for being open-minded about the new perspective. Clearly my attempts to get more readers to resonate with Vara didn't work quite as well with you XD Well, I tried.

As I wrote in another review reply, Vara's video-game biography is different from her biography in this story. In the game, she was an uneducated child who didn't know how to speak but loved her terminally-ill mother. After her mom passed away, she was adopted by one of the other characters in the game. She's a minor character in the game, but even then the few scenes she's in spoke to me.

And hey, we got to see Joshua again! Didn't expect him to be hiding in the seats, did you? At least we know he's figured out how to use the Unknown Element to sneak around whenever he feels bored. XD

Guest #1. Thanks for the review! I don't plan on stopping Aimless anytime soon. Life does get in the way though, so I don't update as fast as I used to.

BronzeHeart92. Glad to hear from you again and thank you for the review!

At least I'm updating THIS story, you know. *sigh* I wish I can give the reader base in my other fic the same treatment (because The Interloper hasn't been updated since 2013 or something). Aahhh I just like Aimless better. It's simpler and less demanding. Sorry if the continuation took a while. I got stuck figuring out how the shaping exercises actually worked (LMAO), I joined a guild in the MMORPG I play, and work picked up.

I don't really remember Spyro Legacy, unfortunately. I've read so many human fics in the Spyro archives that I don't remember anything other than those that left very good impressions on me for various reasons (The Impossible Sky, Bald, Broken Perceptions, Distant Across Dimensions, A Cursed Soul, and Love Between Dragonesses, to name a few). The storyline you described sounds familiar though…

Wretched Abyss. Hello and thanks for the review! Good to see you again :D

Vara and Joshua do have their similarities, though I don't think it's appropriate to compare them. Sure, both are terrible at their respective Elements, but they are terrible with it for different reasons. Vara can't channel Ice properly because her innate talent for it is so low that she makes bad decisions on how she manipulates her mana and has difficulty recognizing the problems she needs to address. Joshua, on the other hand, not only can't sustainably maintain the conditions needed to merely manipulate the Unknown Element but also is further undermined by the fact the Unknown Element does not give any sensory feedback at all, in the sense that Fire causes one to feel heat/energy, Ice cold/calmness, etc.

And of course there are also the obvious differences, but I don't have to explain them, do I?

Twilight (guest). Have you read past Chapter 16? I've had to do that whole "overkill" thing with Joshua in the second story arc so I can showcase all that he can possibly do with his Element. That's pretty much it lol. Don't worry – things will get better for him.

Space Communism (guest). Pestering me with demands for updates aren't going to make me write it faster. I write Aimless out of my own time, and I don't even get paid for it.